1. Field
Some example embodiments may relate to apparatuses for and/or methods of generating medical images.
2. Description of Related Art
In order to diagnose the patient, medical imaging equipment acquiring information of the inside of the human body as images provides information necessary to diagnose the disease. Currently, medical imaging methods used or being developed in the hospital are largely divided into methods of acquiring anatomical images and physiological images. First, there are imaging methods providing detailed anatomical images of the human body at high resolution, for example, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) or Computed Tomography (CT). These methods generate two-dimensional images on the cross-section of the human body, or generate high resolution three-dimensional images by using multiple two-dimensional images, to thus represent the exact location and shape of the organs within the human body. Second, a prime example of physiological imaging methods is, positron emission tomography (PET) which contributes to the diagnosis of the metabolic abnormalities by taking a photograph of the metabolic processes in the body.
Positron emission tomography is an imaging technology that a special radioactive tracer emitting positrons are created as a form of a component that participates in the metabolism of the human body, and the tracer is injected into the human body by way of intravenous injection or inhalation, and in the case of which positrons emitted from these tracers combine with electrons, two gamma-rays of about 511 keV which are emitted in opposite directions are detected by using an external device, thereby tracking the location of the tracer, and observing the distribution of these forms and the change to the distribution over time.